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Blair Invokes God in Decision to Send British Troops to Iraq
By ALAN COWELL
Published: March 4, 2006

LONDON, March 3 — Prime Minister Tony Blair has indicated that God influenced his deliberations when he committed British troops to fight alongside American forces in Iraq.

The remarks, which surprised some antiwar campaigners, were made in an Independent Television talk show to be broadcast Saturday night. A transcript was released by the ITV station on Friday.

Mr. Blair has made no secret of his Christian faith, but he has not previously ascribed policy decisions to his religion. In the past, he refused to answer persistent questions by an interviewer about whether he had prayed with President Bush.

In the interview on the widely followed "Parkinson" show, Mr. Blair was asked about sending troops to Iraq, ITV said.

"That decision has to be taken and has to be lived with," he said, according to the ITV transcript, "and in the end there is a judgment that — well, I think if you have faith about these things, then you realize that judgment is made by other people."

Asked to explain what he meant, he replied, "If you believe in God, it's made by God as well."

"This is not just a matter of a policy here or a thing there, but of their lives and in some case their death," he said. "The only way you can take a decision like that is to try to do the right thing, according to your conscience, and for the rest of it you leave it to the judgment that history will make."

The Iraq war has proven unpopular with many Britons. Rose Gentle, an antiwar activist whose son Gordon died with British forces in Iraq, said: "A good Christian wouldn't be for this war. I'm actually quite disgusted by the comments. It's a joke."

In the talk show, the host, Michael Parkinson, asked Mr. Blair, "So will you pray to God when you make a decision like that?"

He replied: "Well, I don't want to get into something like that. Of course, you struggle with your own conscience about it because people's lives are affected and it's one of these situations that I suppose very few people ever find themselves in. In the end, you do what you think is the right thing."

Blair Invokes God in Decision to Send British Troops to Iraq (http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/04/international/europe/04blair.html?_r=1&oref=slogin)